Operations options give you a quick way to perform the given operations without applying a formula or directly changing the cell contents.įor example, let’s say you have some numbers that are in millions, and you want to convert it into billions. Operation Options in the Paste Special Dialogue Box: This will only copy the data and not the formatting. If you want to copy only the values, copy the data, go to the destination cell where you want the data to be copied, open the Excel Paste Special dialog box, and select Values. To use these, simply copy the cells, go the cell where you want to paste it, open the paste special dialogue box, and select the desired option.įor example, suppose you have a data set where you have formatted the data using borders and fill colors. For example, you can choose to only paste formulas, or values, or formats, or comments, etc.

These options enable you to paste selectively. So let’s learn more about these options: Paste Options in the Paste Special Dialogue Box: If you have a good grip on these Excel Paste Special options, it can save you a lot of time (and you know time is money!). However, when you go through these, it makes a lot of sense to have these options available. It could be overwhelming to see so many options for something as simple as copying and pasting in Excel. Understanding Excel Paste Special Dialogue Box

Using Right-click Menu: Right Click in the cell where you want to paste, and then select paste special.Īll these three options would open a Paste Special dialogue box, as shown below:.

Using Keyboard Shortcut: Use the Excel Paste Special Shortcut – Alt + E + S + V.

This will open the Excel Paste Special Dialogue box.

Using the Ribbon: Go to Home –> Clipboard –> Paste –> Paste Special.

Once you copy it, here are three different ways to access paste special in Excel: The first step is to copy the cells that you want to paste. There are a couple of ways you can access the Excel Paste Special features. You can’t do that with a simple copy paste but you can do that using Excel Paste Special functionality in Excel. It copies not only the content of the cell but also the format such as background color, font color, borders(as shown below).īut what if you want to copy only the cell contents and not the formatting, or only the formatting and not the values, or only the formula within it? What happens when you copy a cell in excel and paste it somewhere else?

Understanding Excel Paste Special Dialogue Box.

Excel shortcut to paste formula